Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012

The forecast for Christmas Day in Central Australia is 39 degrees Celsius ... so much for a "white" Christmas. It's a tad hot for roast meats and vegies straight out of the oven, so we plan to do our cooking Christmas eve in an outdoors barbecue after dark and then have cold meats and salads for lunch.

We usually start with a pancake breakfast around 10 am after we have opened our presents. Our pancakes are topped with jam, cane sugar syrup and cream (for anyone keen enough to bolster their cholesterol levels) accompanied by fruit juice, coffee, and a variety of seasonal fruits.

Around 2 pm we begin to feel hungry again, so it's back to the table for another round, this time pork, chicken, turkey and beef roast and a variety of salads eg, potato salad, bean salad, , prawn salad, and that green leaf stuff that has no nutrition, tastes like cardboard and doesn't seem good for anything ... lettuce. (By now I expect you will have guessed I don't like it).

At lunch we will probably crack a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine or Champagne depending on how much we have already consumed and who wants what. We have quite a collection for a family that doesn't really drink all that much (in comparison with other Territorians that is).

After lunch I usually get the job of cleaning up, (thank goodness for dish washers) have a nap for an hour if time permits and then in the evening Christina and I are off to Ilparpa (five or six kilometres away) to have dinner with friends. By then we probably won't care what our son, daughter and grandson are doing. All the excitement tends to wear us out these days.

It's a good thing Christmas only comes annually, although I seriously think that in Australia we should have it in July, not December. I may start up a Christmas in July Lobby Group to try to change our traditions. There is another group hell bent on eliminating Christmas, so my pressure for a change in timing shouldn't be such a bad deal.

We hope you and yours, wherever you are have a wonderful Christmas and New Year if it is part of your tradition and if not, we wish you all the best for 2013.

Robin

Mt Gambier - Volcano City

Mt Gambier is a beautiful city at the south-east corner of South Australia near the border with Victoria. Locally the region is called the Limestone Coast obviously because of the volcanic nature of the area and the subsequent limestone deposits.

We had never been here before, so it was lovely to visit and see all the beautiful gardens and the main features related to the city's volcanic history.

At the edge of the city is the Blue Lake, an ancient volcanic opening which is now filled with beautiful blue water ... the town's drinking supply. Underneath the city is a vast system of caverns, and waterways, many of which are frequented by scuba divers who explore the caves. On the surface are numerous sink holes where the tops of caves have collapsed creating holes of varying depths. Several of these have been turned into public parks with chairs, tables, and free gas barbecues.

There are dozens of walking paths around the city and nearby areas. It's truly a lovely part of South Australia, but unfortunately, in November (southern hemisphere Spring) it's still chilly, so it's obviously a cooler place unsuited to dry, hot weather people like us.

Click on the photo strip to see the following examples of Mt Gambier, with a description of each from the top down:

1. A park at the edge of the Blue Lake has a block of limestone with a small solution tube (water and acid eat through the limestone leaving a circular hole)
2. Christina stands at one of the viewing platforms erected in the 1800s
3. The Blue Lake taken from a lookout some kilometres away
4. Inside the Umpherstine sink hole which is now a public recration area
5. Looking into the Umpherstine Sink Hole
6. Bottle brush flowers are plentiful in the Umpherstine Sink Hole Park
7. A possum lives in a cave at Umpherstine Sink Hole and is obviously accustomed to visitors of the two legged variety

Today is our last day at Mt Gambier and we had for the Coorong before going to Adelaide and then back up the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs.

Robin

Visiting Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

Tourist brochures tell us that Bendigo and the nearby Heathcote Regions of Victoria are among the fastest growing areas in the state. The local population is around 100,000 which probably doesn't mean much to those of you in Mumbai or Mexico city, or perhaps in Indonesia.

Between 1850 and 1900 Bendigo mines produced more gold than any other place in the world, about nine billion dollars worth. But now the mining era has been and gone and all that are left are the stories of immigrants who became millionaires overnight and the remnants such as the poppet head in the photo at left.

I've visited Bendigo several times previously, the most recent perhaps 15 years ago and have always found it a pleasant, nice place to be, although prone to cold weather; I wouldn't want to live here.

Among the many things to do at Bendigo are:

1. do an underground mine tour of the Central Deborah Gold Mine which is situated within the city area (strange to see a poppet head sticking out from the suburban streets)
2. go for a trip on the Bendigo Tramways' "talking train"
3. visit the Bendigo Pottery and watch a wheel thrown pottery demonstration as an expert potter shows how easy it is to transform a lump of damp clay into a work of art
4. visit the Chinese Museum and cultural centre and associated gardens
5. follow a map to visit many of the very old buildings that date back to the early days of Bendigo's settlement

If none of these appeals to you, there are plenty of pubs, a nightclub, restaurants, shops and other things to do here.

There is an excellent tourist information centre here with dozens of brochures, maps and stuff to buy. Although we don't by any "tourist stuff" anymore, Christina and I found it nice walking through the beautiful parks and gardens and around the route covering the old buildings (even grey nomads need exercise). Many of the tree varieties here eg, Dutch elm and oak are not found in Central Australia, as are many of the flowers and shrubs, so it's uplifting to walk among them and admire their beauty, depth of foilage and the birdlife they attract.

We stopped at a business which is a coffee shop, restaurant and bar and had a cup of coffee and garlic bread with three accompanying dips. Fortunately, we only bought one to share as it was huge and one each would have been simply too much. We are finding more and more now that serving sizes have become inordinately large, so it's common for us to buy one meal and share it.

After all, every calorie counts!

Robin